Irene Lew
| image = | race = Human | nationality = American | birthday = | gender = Female | height = | weight = | affiliation = Central Intelligence Agency | occupation = CIA Agent/Analyst | previous occupation = | partner = Ryu Hayabusa | previous partner = | relatives = | debut = Ninja Gaiden (NES), Ninja Gaiden II | japanese voice = Mariko Suzuki, Yumi Toma (Ninja Ryukenden OVA) | english voice = Kari Wahlgren }} , also spelled Irene Liu and Aileen, is the main female character in the original trilogy, serving as Ryu's romantic interest, and the series' damsel in distress. She is an agent of the CIA's Secret Auxiliary Unit, working under the codename "Sea Swallow". She later appears in a revamped form in Ninja Gaiden II for the Xbox 360 under the alias Sonia (ソニア, Sonia) . Appearance Sonia is a voluptuous pale woman, with short silver blonde hair, she wears a black leather suit with vertical whites strips down the front, long black gloves, and thigh high black boots. As well as several storage packs/weapon holsters on belts around her waist, right arm and right thigh. She also has a small red tatoo above her breasts. Personality Sonia is a headstrong gutsy woman, willing to do whatever it takes to get the job done and very confident in her abilities. She is also very caring and affectionate towards Ryu Hayabusa. History Sent by the CIA on a top secret case involving fiends, Sonia discover plans to resurrect the Archfiend and an unholy alliance between the Black Spider Ninja Clan and the fiends. With this knowledge Sonia goes searching for Ryu to help her stop the Black Spider Ninja Clan from obtaining the Demon Statue, in possession of the Hayabusa Ninja Clan, and required by the fiends to resurrect the Archfiend. Plot Ninja Gaiden (NES) Irene's first encounter with Ryu is in Ninja Gaiden, where she shoots and captures him with a tranquilizer dart. She passes him the Shadow demon statue, and is later taken hostage by the Jaquio to force Ryu to hand over the statue. Although Ryu complies, the Jacquio keeps Irene to be sacrificed, and drops Ryu into a pit. However Ryu manages to find a way out and defeats the Jacquio, escaping the collapsing temple with Irene. As she falls in love with Ryu Irene disobeys an order from Foster to kill him. Ninja Gaiden II:The Dark Sword of Chaos In Ninja Gaiden II: The Dark Sword of Chaos, Irene plays more of a hostage/damsel-in-distress role. She is captured by Ashtar and held at the Tower of Lahja. She proves to be a distraction to Ryu which lets Ashtar take advantage of to ambush Ryu. Although Robert manages to save Ryu, Ashtar manages to bring Irene away with him through the Maze of Darkness. When Ryu finally reaches her, it is for naught, as Ashtar maniacally stabs her from behind. Irene survives the blow, and tasks Ryu to destroy an altar. While she is being escorted out by Robert, they are ambushed by the Jacquio. Taken hostage by him, Irene is to be sacrificed as a bait for the demons of the dark world when the Sword of Chaos awakens. However, she is resurrected by the Dragon Sword's magic. Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom In Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, Irene is attacked by Ryu's Doppelganger while investigating a secret lab. She falls off a cliff into the ocean and is presumed dead. However, she survives the fall, and turns up later in the last encounter with Foster. She points a gun at Foster to arrest him and stop his plan, but her weapon is useless against the Doppelganger. She is reunited with Ryu at the end after his journey through subspace to defeat Clancy. Ninja Gaiden II Irene returns to the Ninja Gaiden Series under the code name Sonia in Ninja Gaiden II. Tracking down a contact who might know the whereabouts of Ryu Hayabusa, on a quiet evening Sonia sits in Muramusa's shop located in Tokyo, asking Muramasa if he knew where Ryu might be. Muramasa tells her how elusive a ninja like Ryu is, suggesting that if he isn't in the Hayabusa village, he could be anywhere in the world. Prompty after the conversation Sonia is ambushed as a Black Spider Ninja smashes through the shop's wall, knocking Muramasa off his ladder and into a pile of boxes. Sonia quickly draws her two pistols and shoots the Black Spider Ninja in a dual wielding style. She then attempts to flee the shop but encounters a Black Spider ninja waiting for her outside, reacting quickly she blows off his head with her pistols, but soon after another ninja attacks her from above, knocking the pistols out of her hands in the scuffle. Defenseless Sonia attempts to run but is snared with chain thrown by one of the ninja. As the 3 ninja approach a subdued Sonia, from out of the shadows they are suddenly cut down by Ryu Hayabusa, but before he can free her, Black Spider reinforcements arrive. As his minions held Ryu back, the black spider leader escapes and takes Sonia captive with him. Later that night on the top floor of a twin skyscraper, Sonia, tied to a chair is physically interrogated by Elizébet, surrounded by Black Spider Ninjas. As the interrogation progresses, the building alarms go off signaling an intruder who turns out to be Ryu. Seeing Ryu cut through the black spider ninjas as he fights his way up the floors, Elizébet handcuffs Sonia and drags her to the helipad on the buidling rooftop. While Ryu is busy fighting a Rasetsu ninja and his minions on the rooftop, Elizébet drags a struggling Sonia to the awaiting helicopter. Ryu manages to slay Rasetsu just as the helicopter takes off with Elizébet and Sonia hanging out the side door. Before it can escape too far, Ryu shoots up a few shurikens, one of which slices Elizébet across the side of her face as Sonia struggles to break free. Having enough Elizébet tosses Sonia down, Ryu then swiftly runs towards Sonia, catching her in mid air as she was free falling. As Ryu uncuffs her, Sonia relieved at finally finding Ryu, informs him of the inpending danger to his clan and village brought upon by the black spider and fiendish alliance in their plan to restore the Archfiend. However her warning comes too late as Ryu is unable to prevent Elizébet from obtaining the Demon Statue and unleashing armies of fiends into the world. Sonia eventually finds herself in the apocolypitc aftermath of New York, flying a helicopter as she dogfights flying demons high above the city. As the night progresses, Sonia discovers the source of the destructive weather and demonic fiends, a deity known as a Greater Fiend. She then rendezvous with Ryu at the Brooklyn Bridge, transporting him over to the Greater Fiend Alexei on Liberty Island, then extracting him once the Greater Fiend is slained. Tracking down Elizébet and the Demon Statue to the Flying Fortress Daedalus, Sonia later arrives at the Coliseum in the Aqua Capital where Ryu is busy fighting a mob of werewolves. Swooping down in her helicopter and firing hellfire missiles into the crowd of werewolves, Sonia airlifts Ryu out the frenzy, and the two fly towards their next objective. Catching up to the Flying Fortress Daedalus, Ryu launches himself onto the Daedalus airship as Sonia provides cover fire from her helicopter, during the skirmish she is hit but miraculously manages to eject herself right before the damaged helicopter explosively collides with the airship. Armed with firearms and a rocket launcher, Sonia makes her way through the airship's interior, causing alarm and emergency annoucements over the intercom as she sabotages the Flying Fortress. Eventually she meets up with Ryu breifly before the pair seperate again working to bring down the Daedalus. Taking out the airship's critical systems she meets up with Ryu again as the airship seperates in two, with them on the falling half and Elizébet escaping on the still airborne half. Rushing through the hallways they end up in the cargo bay where Ryu quickly mounts a motocycle and Sonia in the backseat. With her rocket launcher Sonia blasts a large hole in the exterior hull and the two ride out on the motocycle landing on the snow peak surface below just as the airship makes it's explosive crash landing. Sonia would later shadow Ryu all the way to the Temple of Sacrifice deep in the caverns of the Amazon jungle, where he manages to defeat Elizébet but fails to retrieve the demon statue. Her encounter with Ryu would not go over well with her, as he tells her that she can no longer follow him due to his path taking him to the dangerous lands of the dead and into the deepest depths of the hellish underworlds. Ignoring Ryu, Sonia journeys into the underworld where she is quickly taken captive by Alexei. Treating Sonia as his new pet, Alexei redresses her in looser attire and locks her in a large cage while tormenting her, but just as he savors his enjoyment, Alexei senses Ryu entering his underworld domain. After dispatching Alexei for good, Ryu frees Sonia from her confinement and journeys further ahead to stop the Archfiend. While Ryu battles ahead clearing a path, Sonia slowly makes her way out of the underworld, catching up to Ryu just as he defeats Vazdah the Archfiend. Upon catching sight of Ryu, Sonia hastily runs up to him and hugs him as the area is lit up by many bright orbs of essence from Vazdah's gigantic corpse. The two journey towards the surface, the peak of Mt. Fuji, but just as they're part way there, blood from Ryu's wounded arm drips down and makes contact with Vazdah's exoskeleton causing a reaction that reinvigorates the Archfiend into his true form, skyrocketing up towards the surface. Reacting quickly Ryu shoots himself up to confront the gigantic Archfiend once more before the demonic supreme deity can escape to the realm of the living and unleash his fiendish world order upon it's inhabitants. As the powerful ninja and supreme deity clash, Sonia works to avoid the explosive blacklash from the titanic battle. In the aftermath Sonia scours the debris for signs of Ryu. Finding him under the Archfiend's boulder sized skull, Ryu and Sonia make their way towards the surface where they stare out into the expanse of clouds below from the volcano peak, watching the morning sun rise. Powers and Abilities General *'Agility': Irene's agility is around the level of an average human. *'Strength': Irene's physical strength is near peak level of a female human, displayed by her ability to carry and use a large "Super Bazooka" rocket launcher with ease. *'Firearm Specialist': As required by CIA field agent training, Irene is an expert at using many types of firearms with deadly accuracy. *'Helicopter Pilot': Irene's skills as a helicopter pilot is at a professional level, able to fly through intense storms, long distances and evade most enemy fire. Weapons & Equipment *'Desert Eagle Pistols': Irene carries a pair of Desert Eagle hand guns, which she sometimes uses in a dual wielding fashion. At short range Irene is able to effectively blow off the heads of her enemies. *'Rocket Launcher': A powerful long range weapon that projects rockets that explode upon impact, Irene is able to cause massive damage with this weapon. *'Submachine Gun': She´s seen with a SMG after Ryu defeats Elizebet. *'Apache Helicopter': A military grade helicopter loaded with hellfire missiles and a 30mm gun, Sonia uses this helicopter to assist Ryu by offering transport and cover fire. Trivia *As chronichled in Ninja Ryukenden the OVA, Irene and Ryu open an curio shop together in New York. *After Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, she and Ryu Hayabusa settled down. *During the events of Ninja Gaiden III: The Ancient Ship of Doom, while everyone assumed she was murdered by the BIO NOID doppleganger, Irene was working in secret with the US government in bringing down Foster and Clancy. *Irene is revamped along with Ryu in Ninja Gaiden II under the alias Sonia. *Like Rachel in the first Ninja Gaiden, Irene is rescued many times by the main protagonist, Ryu Hayabusa. She also enjoys flirting with him from time to time. It is unknown if she is really in love with him. It is noted that both Irene and Rachel have similar character designs. *Unlike the rest of the heroines from Ninja Gaiden, she didn't get a playable role in Ninja Gaiden Sigma 2. *In the final chapter of Ninja Gaiden II/Sigma II, at the start of the level, if you turn 180 degrees from where you are facing, you will see Irene outside the bird cage. If you shoot her with an arrow (Fiend's Bane Bow), spears (Gatling Spear Gun) or a mortar (Howling Cannon), she will die and some reason, the game is over. *In ''Dead or Alive Dimensions, ''it is revealed during Ryu's disappearance from Lisa's apartment after leaving the cruise ship as a spy, that Sonia is in fact Irene Lew. References Lew, Irene